872 million rubles were spent on the purchase of domestic cars for civil servants

Government purchases of foreign-made business-class cars in 2022 fell by almost four times. The volume of purchases at the request of Vedomosti was calculated by the specialists of the Tenderplan search and analytical tender management system.

Experts found that in 2021, government agencies placed 322 tenders for foreign cars in the amount of 1 billion 363 million rubles. In 2022, the figures dropped to 85 tenders in the amount of 648 million rubles. From the data for the first half of this year, it follows that the number of tenders has decreased to 37 (for the amount of 236 million rubles).

“It’s mostly about brands. Toyota and Mercedes. By 2023, the total share of such purchases has already decreased by eight times,” Maxim Kuznetsov, CEO of Tenderplan, explained to Vedomosti.

According to him, we can talk about a new round of growth in purchases of domestic car brands through the state order system. In 2022, most of the production processes of domestic enterprises were put on hold, Kuznetsov recalled. This was caused by the sanctions policy of Western countries that supplied components for cars.

In 2023, there has been a positive trend in this regard, the expert noted. According to Tenderplan, the Russian auto industry has begun to occupy the vacated niche. During the first six months of this year, 515 notices were placed for the purchase of domestic cars for 872 million rubles. Whereas for the whole of 2022 there were only 807 such tenders (for a total amount of about 1 billion rubles).

“These figures do not include information about the Russian premium brand Aurus, for which we do not see data in any system,” Kuznetsov said. Aurus is assembled in Tatarstan, President Vladimir Putin uses cars of this brand for public events.

“Highly localized cars now are Aurus, Lada and UAZ. This is basically Russian technology. But even within the framework of these car manufacturers, there is no complete independence from imported components,” Vladimir Bespalov, an expert on the automotive industry, explained to Vedomosti.

In his opinion, many domestic projects now look like assembly projects. Components for Russian cars are partially imported from other countries. Bespalov added that such projects as “Avtotor“and” Moskvich “, mainly based on Chinese spare parts.

The general director of Avtostat, Sergey Tselikov, explained that now only Lada Granta and Lada Niva are “100% Russian developments.” Some components for them continue to be purchased abroad, he noted.

On August 3, Putin, at a meeting with heads of manufacturing enterprises, said that all Russian officials should drive domestic cars. He also stressed that the purchase of foreign cars for civil servants should be “absolutely excluded.”